Health Check

Do you wonder what the Grundy County Health Council has been up to? Here’s a brief peak from last few months of things just related to activity, nutrition and diabetes.

42 residents chose to participate in Shopping Matters tours with 5 people being trained as facilitators. These folks have each received a $25 gift card after their tour to help pay for groceries.

125 students in the after-school programs have chosen to compete in a “100 Miles in 100 Days” competition. That’s like walking to the aquarium in Chattanooga and back again with some miles left to walk around town! How exciting to see these kids choosing to walk.

Heard about Zumba? It’s exercise done to music and coordinated by Jill Myers, our fearless leader! Last fall, 40-60 children chose to participate in “Zumba for Kids” each week between August and December. 35 adults chose to participate in their own Zumba class meeting twice a week from September until December. And now? 153 women have chosen to participate in “Zumba Bootcamp 2014” which is meeting 3 times a week for 8 weeks! Plus we had a waiting list of folks wanting to participate that we could not accommodate. These folks have chosen to take the challenge to get moving!

We chose to partner with Friends of South Cumberland to install some new playground equipment at Grundy Lakes. When working on this, we discovered South Cumberland Park already chose to install some new equipment for the bigger kids this spring. So we chose to work with them to install something for the little kids. I’ll be sure to tell you about it as we get closer to the unveiling!

Again this year we are partnering with the park rangers to have a “Trashy Gizzard” clean up. This will only be on Saturday, February 22 at 10:00 a.m. Meet at the parking area at Grundy Forest and pick up the trash that has washed down into the Fiery Gizzard. The rangers will provide gloves and trash bags. If you chose to help, you need to wear sturdy shoes and bring a lunch if you wish. We’ll provide bottles of water for you.

The Wickhams will be representing the Health Council at the upcoming Together on Diabetes Grantee Summit, which will be held in Atlanta. There will be a poster displaying the work that is going on in Grundy County to help us prevent and reverse diabetes through education, nutrition and activity. Perhaps they will choose to bring back a picture of the poster that we can share!

The Reversing Diabetes Seminar being held in Altamont has been a great program. 23 people have attended at least 3 of the first 6 weeks. 78% of them have lost weight. In fact, they have lost a total of 108 pounds! They are so thankful to be learning to understand diabetes and what they can do to stop the disease process. As Dr. McKeown says, “It’s 10% doctor and 90% patient.” Another Reversing Diabetes Seminar will start in Monteagle on March 13. If you choose to attend, call to register at 931-592-4191.

And Body4Believers is coming to Tracy City on February 28 from 4:00 to 8:00 p.m. at the First Baptist Church. You don’t need to register but can just show up and enjoy. This is free nutritional information. Come learn what has worked for these folks in helping them lose weight and get their bodies in good shape. If you chose to attend, perhaps this will be the beginning of a new you.